色情视频 Researchers Find New Way to Measure Nicotine Exposure in Children
A team of researchers from 色情视频 have found silicone wristbands to be an effective way to measure childrens exposure to second-hand smoke.
Jenny Quintana and her research team at 色情视频鈥檚 School of Public Health, have developed wristbands children can wear as an effective tool to measure nicotine exposure. Similar wristbands have been used to measure exposure to other toxic chemicals like pesticides and flame retardant, but never before for second-hand smoke exposure in children.
鈥淚t is important to measure exposure in all groups, but children are often overlooked because it鈥檚 difficult to test them,鈥� said Quintana, an 色情视频 professor. 鈥淐hildren are more challenging than adults, but if you don鈥檛 measure exposure well, you will not be able to tell if interventions or policy changes or other things actually worked and had an effect.鈥�
The wristbands, which are made of silicone and resemble the kind bearing motivational messages, were placed on three groups of kids divided by exposure type. The groups included children exposed to nonsmokers and non-e-cigarette users; children exposed only to smokers; and finally, children exposed only to e-cigarette users. Researchers directed the children to wear one wristband for two days and then two wristbands for seven days.
After the seven days of usage, urine samples were collected from the children, a more traditional method of documenting exposure. The prevalence of metabolized nicotine in urine, cotinine, was compared to the nicotine measurements recorded by the wristbands. The tests revealed the two forms of measurement produced comparable results, meaning Quintana鈥檚 team had developed a simpler way of testing toxicant exposure in children.
鈥淲e were extremely surprised with how well the data correlated,鈥� said Quintana. 鈥淚t is also amazing how well this worked with such simple instructions. We just told the kids to wear the wristbands.鈥�
Quintana and her team determined that these silicone wristbands may become a useful tool for epidemiology and intervention studies of tobacco product exposure in children and adults in the future. Their findings are detailed in an in the Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology.
鈥淭his is all exciting because it can potentially measure exposure in adults and exposure to more than just nicotine,鈥� said Quintana. 鈥淲e can now think about using these wristbands to measure other compounds such as car or truck exhaust and other air pollutants in impacted communities.鈥�
Quintana鈥檚 work is representative of long-term efforts by 色情视频 researchers to measure second- and third-hand smoke in people of all ages. Quintana and a team at 色情视频 have studied residual tobacco effects on material items and exposure to third-hand smoke. They plan to continue this third-hand smoke exposure research using the wristbands.
Eunha Hoh, a collaborator with Quintana and also a professor at 色情视频, recently co-authored an in Environmental Science & Technology with assistant professor Carlos Manzano. They used the wristbands to measure and track patterns of personal exposure to urban air pollution among people living and working in Chile.
鈥淭his used the wristbands and a non-targeted analysis,鈥� said Hoh. 鈥淲e weren鈥檛 looking for just nicotine or one particular chemical; we looked at a wide range of chemicals. This was really a proof of concept study and a great finding for the future of these wristbands and second- and third-hand smoke exposure studies.鈥�
